- By Mayukh Debnath
- Mon, 18 Nov 2024 08:36 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
AIIMS Bhubaneswar News: In a medical miracle of sorts, a 24-year-old man was recently brought back to life by a team of experts at AIIMS Bhubaneswar after his heart stopped beating for nearly 90 minutes (1.5 hours). According to doctors, the patient was revived using a special resuscitation technique called Extracorporeal Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (eCPR).
The patient, in critical condition with heart failure, was referred to AIIMS Bhubaneswar on October 1, news agency PTI noted. The young man suffered a cardiac arrest shortly after his arrival at the elite government-run healthcare facility, PTI said in its report. He was, subsequently, administered conventional CPR for 40 minutes, albeit, to no avail, the report added.
The next course of action included two options -- either declare the patient dead or perform a cutting-edge procedure. The doctors decided to choose the latter of the two options and proceed with eCPR, Dr. Ashutosh Biswas of AIIMS Bhubaneswar told reporters on Monday.
As per PTI, the attempt, led by Intensivist and Adult ECMO specialist Dr Srikant Behera, bore the desired result and the man's heart began to beat after around 80 minutes of inactivity, though with an irregular rhythm. "Over the next 30 hours, the heart function improved significantly, and the patient was successfully weaned off ECMO after 96 hours," Dr Biswas was quoted as saying by PTI.
"eCPR, while technically challenging, represents a promising advancement in the treatment of cardiac arrests traditionally deemed fatal. This success marks a milestone in Odisha's medical history," the doctor said further.
One of the longest known periods that a human heart remained dormant before being revived successfully is six hours. The patient, a British woman named Audrey Schoeman, was revived in Spain's Barcelona after she went into hypothermia-induced cardiac arrest in 2019. She had developed severe hypothermia after getting caught in a snowstorm in the Spanish Pyrenees, where the woman had gone for hiking with her husband. Schoeman was able to make a full recovery.
(With inputs from agencies)
